hotter



- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AARON M. GONTNER AND FRANKLIN G. MOTTER, OF YORK, PENNSYLVANIA.

ARTIFICIAL FUEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part,of Letters Patent No. 563,162, dated June 30, 1896.

A li ati fil d June 8, 1895. Serial No. 552,144, (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, AARON M. GONTNER and FRANKLIN G. MOTTER, citizens of the United States, residing at York, in the county of York and State of Pennsylvania,have invented certain new and useful Improvements i Artificial Fuel; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact deiption of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of our invention is to produce an economical substitute for coal, which will burn freely, generate an intense heat, and be reduced to a dirt ash, free from clinkers or any hard lumps or cakes, and which will not deteriorate during storage, but, on the contrary, will retain its combustible and heatgiving properties an indefinite length of time. Our artificial coal consists of the following ingredients, in substantially the proportions specified, to wit: two thousand (2,000) pounds of sand or earth, twenty (20) pounds of rosin, one hundred (100) pounds of coal, either anthracite or bituminous coal, six ((5) pounds of charcoal, twelve (12) pounds of flour, twenty (20) pounds of sulfur, and fifty pounds of wood-pulp or sawdust.

We may use the refuse dust from either anthracite or bituminous coal, but the coal used should be thoroughly powdered. All of the ingredients are reduced to a pulverulent condition and placed in a suitable mixingmachine, whereby they are thoroughly agitated and mixed together, after which the mass is dampened with water sufficiently to cause it to cohere. The mixture is then pressed into cakes or lumps of any convenient form and size by subjecting batches of the mixture to heavy pressure, say from ten to twenty tons pressure, and the compressed cake or lump is now reduced by subjecting it to the action of conning-mill rolls or other machinery to break the same into difierent sizes or grades of fuel similar to coal. If desired, the lumps may be sorted or graded by passing the same over screens or sieves in an operation similar to well-known methods of grading coal.

, The large proportions of sand or earth serve as the base of our substitute for coal, to hold the other ingredients in mass, and when combustion is well under way the sand or earth has a peculiar effect, in that it greatly increases the heat thrown oflt by the fuel. The rosin and sulfur tend to increase combustibility of the fuel, and when the fire is started these ingredients ignite very quickly and promote combustion of the powdered carbonaceous materialscoal and charcoal. The flour serves as the binder to insure cohesion of the mass, as does also the rosin. The wood-pulp or sawdustcauses expansion of the fuel when combustion is under way, so that the fuel is disintegrated and every particle is exposed for consumption.

When the fuel is burning, the earthy matter or sand is heated to incandescence, and the other ingredients used in the preparation of our fuel are combustible, to a greater or less extent.

We may use any suitable kind of flour, either rye-flour or wheat-flour, as the binding agents, and any kind of sand or earthy matters may be used.

Our fuel is used in the same way and for the same purposes as coal.

One of the most important results attained by burning our fuel is that it is reduced to dirt or earthy ashes, entirely free from clinkers, or any hard vitrified lumps or cakes, so that the fire may be easily shaken down and kept bright.

WVe have demonstrated that, bulk for bulk, our fuel will generate more intense heat than either bituminous or anthracite coal, and the new fuel will burn freely,but not quite as fast as coal.

Our new fuel is free from ingredients which will evaporate, and the fuel will not deteriorate when stored, but it retains for an indefinite length of time its combustible and heatgiving properties.

Our fuel can be manufactured in large quantities more cheaply than coal can be dust, in substantially the proportions, and lo mined and shipped to consumers. for the purposes specified.

Having thus fully described our invention, In testimony whereof we aflix our signawhat we claim as new, and desire to secure tures in presence of two Witnesses. by Letters Patent, is AARON M. GONTNERJ The herein-described composition of mat- FRANKLIN G. MOTTER. ter to be used in preparing a substitute for Witnesses: coal consisting of sand or earth, rosin, coal, J OS. R. STRAWBRIDGE,

charcoal, flour, sulfur, and wood-pulp or saw- JACOB E. W'EAVER. 

